I paint in oils over gold leaf. I use a method similar to Brad Kunkle but can find nothing on how his work is varnished. Specifically my problem is that if I varnish the figure in a gloss it shines and merges so much with the background leafing that the figure can really only be visually read from the front. If I do the figure in matt varnish then it is different from the rest of the painting and could look odd. Have you ever seen his or any of the others you mentioned in person to see what the final varnish looks like? Any advice?